Good Eats - O.C. Edition

So, we just spent the better part of the last two weeks in beautiful Ocean City, MD where, besides that sand and ocean thing that everyone loves, there are plenty of great things to eat! Here's some thoughts and reviews on some of the places you might (or might not) want to visit on your next trip down the ocean!

We had some friends that were also down there the same time we were. About a year ago they had mentioned this place they always go to for breakfast called General's Kitchen (74th St. & Coastal Hwy.) I was informed that the General served up a Creamed Chip Beef Omelet that was out of this world. I couldn't wait to try it out. The place seats about 70 people and the line to get in can get kind of long. We had a fairly short wait considering there were 9 people in our party. Since the Kitchen was known for their cream chip beef, I decided to order the classic way...over toast! It was fantastic, and easily the best cream chipped beef I've ever had. Really, really good! They've got all kinds of other breakfast goodies on the menu. Someone got a Spanish omelet that looked really good, and Elias gobbled up two helpings of Silver Dollar Pancakes (with ketchup!) I'm looking forward to another visit to try the cream chip beef omelet.

Castaway's (64th St.) is a new place down there that caught our eye. The promise of a Caribbean inspired menu is what drew me to the place. The restaurant is very large, with plenty of seating indoors and out and should cut down on wait times in the heart of the season. The whole place has a tropical/Jimmy Buffett kind-of-thing going on. There was even live steel drum music playing when we got there. Most of the people at our table seemed happy with their selections except Joey and I. Our waiter went on and on about how amazing their Caribbean Crab Cakes were. They were unlike any other crab cake we'd ever had, he swore! And that they were all meat, no filler...he added. Well, they were just about the worst crab cakes I've ever had. They tasted frozen, there was plenty of filler, and they were generally disappointing. A side dish of lumpy, redskin mashed potatoes didn't help matters either. Regardless of the waiter's recommendation, at the prices they were charging I should have had better crab cakes. I doubt we'll be returning to Castaway's in future vacations.

Right here your looking at a delicious plate of Crab Nachos from Crabcake Factory U.S.A. (120th St.) We probably would never have discovered this place if we hadn't stayed so close to it. Crabcake Factory isn't a fancy place, it's kind of a hole in the wall...but what they lack in appearance they make up for with a fantastic menu filled with all sorts of tasty fresh seafood. These Nachos were yumm-o on their own, but they were also covered with mounds of crab meat. There must have been at least three crabcakes worth of meat piled onto those bad boys. I'd say one of the best things we ate while we were down there! We also had REAL Crab Rangoons. Usually you find Crab Rangoons or Crab Wontons at Chinese restaurants where they are just filled with vegetable cream cheese. These rangoons were filled with real honest to goodness crab meat. Quite a treat after enjoying the cream cheese versions for so long. Crabcake Factory U.S.A. is a nice quiet place that never seems to have a line and always serves up yummy seafood dishes. It's home to the Ocean City chapter of the Ravens Roost Fan Club, so if there's a Ravens game when you're in town, you might want to find somewhere else to go.

I'll try and hit you up with some more Good Eats: Ocean City Style later this week!